Rainbow's End - Wizard (11 page)

Told her about Rockham and
Firham and Pine Cottage; about summer days and taking walks and having picnics; about the forest and camping and sleeping under the stars; about cold nights in front of the fireplace, hot soup and stories and chocolate and cacao; and watching the snow fall; and listening to music and listening to the silence…

…
told her about reading books together and to each other; and laughing together, and at each other; about crying together. About his best friend William, and the school in Firham where Grammy taught maths and science…

…told her a
bout Grammy and leukaemia. And about Grammy and death…

He spoke
for a long time and Annie listened and looked at his pictures. And when he was finished, she hugged Thomas for a minute, then tucked him in and said goodnight.

She opened the bedroom
door, but before leaving, looked at him with eyes that said she understood. ‘It’s all right to cry, Thomas,’ she said. ‘Even for boys it’s all right. And in here,’ gesturing at the room, ‘no one can see or hear you. Remember,’ she added, ‘Tears are the water that wash our souls.’

She left then, and pulled the door shut, and Thomas,
exhausted with pent-up grief, thought off the light and cried himself to sleep.

8

The moon was a huge white lantern
: round, with holes and craters that reflected perfectly on its twin, which drifted peacefully in the still waters of Ariana’s Pool. It seemed close enough to touch, turning everything dark to soft gold and shimmering silver. A million stars kept it company, floating and sparkling softly in the water and the sky. Hundreds of shadowy fern-fronds were turned fluorescent-green by clusters of clinging fireflies; they swayed slowly in the invisible current.

There was no wind
; the night air a pot-pourri of wild flowers and nocturnal sounds: the hoot of an owl, a chorus of frogs and crickets, and the rustle and scurry of small animals in the tall grass behind the Talking Rock. Big John had left and Thomas was alone on the tongue-shaped stone; sitting on its end with his legs hanging over the edge. He had taken off his sandals, and when he straightened his ankles and swung his feet, his toes ploughed the water’s surface in quicksilver furrows.

Another day had gone and he ran it through his mind again. He - and Annie, he later discovered - had slept late, and only got up with half of Rainbow’s End’s day already gone. He had a huge brunch of cereal and thick toast dripping with butter; and eggs and cheese and wonderful fresh fruit and juice, and then Big John took him exploring again…

*

  She appeared, seemingly out of nowhere: barefoot and walking on the water - causing ripples and small splashes that distorted and made the big old moon and its stars go up and down. Said, ‘Hello, Thomas,’ as if they’d just met at the corner shop; and stepped on to the rock, and sat down next to him. Boneless and strengthless, which was probably a good thing, or he might have run off into the night.

She wa
s also very beautiful - even to a boy of eleven, supposedly not interested in girls yet. The light of the moon gave her very black hair a bluish halo, and turned her eyes darker than they really were. Tall, with skin like alabaster; she wore a white, knee-length gown, which shimmered and swung when she walked. Thomas wondered how she knew his name, and then dismissed it. Rainbow’s End was a small place with very few people.

He
said then, in a half-whisper, ‘I don’t know if you’re supposed to be here.’

She
asked - in the same hushed tone, ‘Why ever not?’

‘Well,’ Thomas glanced at the water. ‘Do you know Ariana?’ The girl nodded and Thomas
, still keeping his voice down, said, ‘I’m supposed to see her…’ He hesitated, ‘Speak to her, I mean…’

Wide-eyed,
in an awed tone, ‘Aren’t you scared?’

He looked to the water again
and nodded. ‘A little,’ he whispered.

Her laugh rang
clear as a bell: it echoed across the water and silenced the frogs and crickets, and had Thomas look at her in shock, dismayed at the noise the girl was making.

‘Ssshh!!
’ he hissed, exasperated, and he knew, too late - for surely her impertinence had been heard. He turned away from her and scooted up an inch or two to show his displeasure.

S
he laughed again, louder and longer this time; scooted after him, and then said, ‘My name is Ariana, Thomas, and I am very, very glad to meet you.’

She smelled of jasmine
and roses, and Thomas said, dismissively; ‘No, you’re not. Ariana is… Big John said she’s a…a…’

‘A god
dess?’

Th
omas nodded, mutely.

‘Well,’ she
smiled and cocked her head at him. ‘I am…sort of.’

A
shake of his head. ‘He also said she’s very old.’

‘He had
that
right.’ She laughed again, then said, very seriously. ‘I am centuries old, Thomas: many centuries old.’

Thomas stared and saw she was serious, and breathed in soft awe, ‘You are. You really are. You’re
her
.’

‘I am,’
Ariana nodded. ‘And as I’ve said before - I’m very pleased to meet you, Thomas.’

‘But aren’t you supposed to…’
He frowned
,
looking at the water.

‘Be in the water?’ Ariana asked and
he nodded.

She said, ‘Oh, I can come out if I want
. I am not a fish.’ She gave a girlish giggle, and before he could stop himself, Thomas joined her.

Ariana
continued, ‘I can come out whenever I want to, Thomas.
If
I want to. I mostly don’t. I prefer the water.’ 

Without thinking
Thomas asked, ‘But don’t you get lonely?’ He looked away, embarrassed at his own audaciousness.

The shadows of the night hid the shadows on her face and the
young woman said, ‘Very lonely, Thomas. But I’m used to it. One gets to be, after a century or so…’ She gave a deprecating little laugh and then went silent for a moment, before saying, ‘I asked Big John to bring you here because there are some things I have to talk to you about. Things I have to explain to you. And some questions I need to ask you.’ Thomas nodded wordlessly and Ariana smiled at him again, then said, ‘But first tell me. Do you like Rainbow’s End?’

C
aught off-guard again, Thomas stammered, ‘Well, it’s… different.’ He saw Ariana’s eyebrows lift in amusement, waiting for more; and then said what he really felt: ‘I think it’s wonderful! It’s - It’s beautiful! I never thought… I heard stories, but… I never imagined that there really could be a place like it…’ He felt himself blushing and fell awkwardly silent, embarrassed again.

Ariana smiled and ruffled his hair. ‘I think I’m going to like you Thomas Ross,’ she said.

He felt his face get
hotter still, and was glad of the dark.

‘Did Big John tell you about my parents?’ Ariana asked.

Thomas nodded.

‘And Kraylle… Did he tell you about Kraylle?’ Another nod and the young goddess turned her eyes to the water.

‘Then let
me
tell you about Rainbow’s End,’ she said. ‘And how it came to be the Rainbow’s End you seem to like so much.’

*****

‘Little bastards,’ Orson grunted and studied the horny nail of the big toe poking through the hole in his threadbare green sock. Izzy had just finished relaying his almost-encounter with Kraylle’s Night Walkers and the two old Travellers sat in silence for a minute, mulling over the gall of modern youth.

The television, for once, had been switched off and the electric light replaced by a soft yellow lantern (just for the night). It created a more companionable atmosphere and made for better drinking. A large sliding door had replaced the logs of one wall (just for the night), and a fresh breeze wafted through every time the comatose Tessie let loose one of her noxious farts.

‘“Little bastards”, is right,’ said Izzy, his speech slightly slurred. He was half-sitting, half-lying in another recliner - which earlier had been a footstool, but had been changed into its present form by Orson (just for the night). A bottle of 12 year old Glenn Morach stood on the small table at his side; it was almost empty and so was the cut-glass tumbler he held in his hand.

Drink had a sentence
shortening effect on the billionaire Traveller and he said, ‘Pretty little girl, Maggie…sweetest little thing…stole my heart when…Frieda already head over heels…’

The two Travellers had been drinking partners for more than fifty years and Orson understood his friend’s shorthand speech perfectly; - so when Izzy said, ‘should meet her…’ he asked in his croaky voice, ‘
Why? Why should I meet her?’

Izzy shrugged, then picked up the almost empty bottle and
splashed its remains into his glass. ‘Damn dog drank half the bottle,’ he said, then, ‘drinks way too much…’

Orson placed his half-empty mug of St. Emilion
Shiraz (£ 200 a bottle) on his own little table, and half rolled out of his chair. He was dressed in just his long johns and stumbled twice on the short walk to the kitchen. He swore at the moving carpet, then rummaged in a cupboard next to the huge fridge that served as his wine cellar. A minute later he came back with the full twin of Izzy’s empty bottle, and set it down next to it. He grunted at the other Traveller’s “preciate it”, and then crawled back onto the comfort of his chair. Lay back with a sigh and picked up his mug, took a long swig from it and almost choked, when Izzy said - in a perfectly normal tone of voice, and a perfectly normal sentence, ‘So, Orson, tell me about this boy. This Thomas.’

*****

‘Giants lived here once,’ said Ariana. She had a lovely voice - soft, but melodious and very clear.

‘
Big, blonde, hairy people. Not huge, but bigger than Big John - eight or nine feet tall and the same shape as human beings. They were a gentle people - against violence and against killing. A race of oracles, scribes and seers, who talked to trees and flowers and rocks; and only rarely to each other.

‘There were never many of them -
just a few hundred; but then, slowly and inexplicably, their numbers started dwindling. More of them died and less were born. Their female numbers were the worst-affected, and although they lived very long, in a few millennia - thousand years - there were none left. After that of course, there were no new births. The men who were left slowly got older and their numbers less…’

Ariana looked at Thomas. He was watching her
, the expression on his face rapt. She took a deep breath and looked to the stars again.

‘Kraylle and I were sleeping when our parents were murdered. We we
re only four or five years old - in terms of your Earth time. Erma, our second mother - or what you would call a nanny - was alerted by one of the planets elders, a good friend of my father’s, that there were plans afoot to kill us as well. It had been stopped but he thought it would only be temporary, and that we were in grave danger.

‘Gods and demi-gods -
as in my brother’s case and mine - master the ability of materialising and dematerialising at about the age of twelve. Until then they sleep in beds placed in Astral Pods. These pods are programmed after a god-child’s birth; after his or her god-sign has been determined. It is done by the Ri-Ti-Ri, which means, “They know all”. Once activated, a pod will travel and roam through space, until a place that suits its occupant’s “ri” - or life force is found. Or until “Called” - which is when the pod receives a telepathic invitation to somewhere that is suitable, and hopefully, eventually acceptable to its charge.

‘
In case of nuclear war or planetary disintegration, these pods close and dematerialise automatically.

‘Erma manually activated our
s, and Kraylle and I left our planet forever: to roam the universe and to seek a place in which to exist. We did so for many centuries; our pods travelling the same path because our god-signs are the same.’

Ariana saw Thomas itching to ask a question and took pity on the boy. ‘Yes, Thomas,’ she asked.

It was a typical eleven-year-old’s question. ‘What did you eat? I mean…centuries?’

Ariana smiled at him. ‘We are gods,
Thomas. We do not need to eat - or drink.’ She saw his surprise and continued, ‘Oh, we
can
if we want… we just don’t need to. As long as we are in touch, or even close to our life element, in our case - water.’ She looked back at the sky.

‘I was between six and seven years old when I was called by Joshi.’
She held up her hand to stop Thomas’ question. ‘Joshi was the last of the Magari - the giant people. My pod responded and it landed here - in the river.’